Carrion
On the third day we came upon a field of flowers and long grass. They were beautiful and there was a deep peace in the air. It might have been high summer there. We were not alone. Nine came for us. We lost two more that day.
Extract from the journal of Michael Durnford, 'Kestrel' to the second expedition.
From this side of the castle the approach led over open land to a covered bridge over a ravine. In the absence of care the lawns which had stretched up towards the castle were now fields of yellow grass which the wind ruffled until it shimmered in twisting waves in the pale starlight. White flowers on twisting brown vines tangled through meadow, they trailed over the ground and climbed over the stalks like honeysuckle. Pilgrim strode ahead. If he noticed the distance the others gave him, he gave no sign. They hung back, slinking low through the long grasses and shooting glances back at the trees.
'How did he escape?' How did he catch up to us?' Luci caught Sebastian whispering to Morgan. Luci cocked her head to one side listening to the conversation as she scrambled forwards. Through the grasses she could just see the unspeakable patting at his forehead and neck with a handkerchief already dark with moisture.
'He must have slipped away in the confusion,' Morgan whispered, but she did not sound certain.
'You know he didn't. I saw him on the bridge. He was laughing, I'd swear to it. There's something not right about that man,' Sebastian pressed.
'So what?' Morgan asked. 'Wrong could be helpful.'
Luci pushed a dense patch of grass apart and crawled through below a tangle of the white flowers. The faintest scent of lily of the valley hung on the night air. She held her breath for a moment as the shivering of the field died away into the soothing susurration of the meadows. She refocused on the conversation as she began to move again.
'… we should at least take his wand, Gore. Who knows what he might do? He might not even be human anymore. What if something else is wearing his face?'
'There's nothing left which could do that,' Morgan said wearily.
'Well I'd start questioning my assumptions if I were you. We're far beyond known territory now. There's more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy, my dear Captain.'
'Call me "dear" anything again and my hand will be wearing you as a puppet,' Morgan warned him.
There was a rustle of grass some way away which came to a sudden stop and the conversation fell silent. Luci's breath caught in her throat. Had that been one of them? Was anyone still behind her? She poked up her head just above the grasses. Pilgrim was nowhere to be seen. Only the slight islands of stillness in the field betrayed the other aurors. She looked around, peeping between the waving seed-heads. The woods were silent, the dark trees stood in a wall of shadows. She peered into their depths and despite herself the hairs on the back of her neck rose. There was nothing there. Letting out a breath she turned back towards the castle and froze. Standing perfectly still, not thirty feet away, was a figure. Their gloved hands rested loosely by their sides, their cowled head was turned away from her. She dropped to the ground holding in her breath.
Cloth swished through grass at measured pace. It rasped against the stalks. It was going to see her she knew it. It was going to see her, and it was going to come for her. She could almost feel the hand reaching out to clamp down onto her shoulder. It would turn her to face it, to look into the hood. Her fingers dug into the damp soil between the roots. She could hear the slithering getting closer and closer.
Her eyes darted side to side, trying to pick out movement. Was it coming towards her? Then she saw it: something else was wriggling, perhaps crawling towards her. A strange motion, twitching and jerking. Grey cloth or perhaps sagging grey flesh sliding over the ground. Her heart faltered and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
As she hesitated the captain's voice cried out, 'Confringo!' Orange light sizzled overhead. 'Everyone, move!'
Luci hurled herself upwards and forwards, ripping at grass and flowers to help her to her feet. Voices called out from every direction, some with curses, some pleading. The same voices echoing backwards and forwards. Clara was chanting curses from her left, begging her for help to her right. She shuddered ignoring the pleading screams and ran, focusing on Morgan's order. Despite herself though she shot a glance backwards. There were figures fanning out across the field. The voices echoed amongst them.
Luci grimaced as something dug painfully into her hand and she looked down to realise that she was still grasping a clump of grass around a small white flower. It was made from a shard of bleached white bone. Its razor-sharp petals had cut deep into her hand. She slowed for a pace as she looked down at the flowers around her waist. Each of them was shaped from slivers of bone and they hung on vines of knotted skin.
'Lie down,' the voices whispered behind her. 'Lie down. It will be easy.'
She pushed onwards, wading through the waves of grass. Ahead of two figures rose and fell struggling like drowning men in the surf of the meadow. She ran towards them, flicking her wand behind her. Slicing discs of steel spun from her wand and out into the night. The men crashed together and then rose, clawing at each other's faces, or rather their face.
They were Ted, both of them. Mirrored expressions of fear, hate and pain raged over their features. She stood frozen with indecision unable to determine which to curse. They fought in silence, oblivious to her presence. She shot another glance over her shoulder. The field was swarming with figures, some in grey, some in a red that burnt despite blue starlight. Others were rising from amidst the grasses with gentle sighs.
A few figures still moved independently. They pushed against the waves, struggling towards her and the bridge. Flashes of spell fire blossomed here and there behind them in a faltering staccato.
'Lumos maxima!' She cried out aiming her wand up into the air. Like a miniature sun a globe of witch-fire rose over the field. The unnatural light etched deep shadows into the faces of the pursued who stood petrified for a moment before they stumbled forwards.
Her eyes ran over them. Theo was bringing up the rear, his face was contorted in panic and his spells were sputtering out as they left the wand. The dread was rolling with him, an unnatural gut-wrenching feeling, clearer now as she felt it coming over her again. She thrust it out of her thoughts though her legs felt like water. Morgan was cutting her way through the stalks, face grim as she alternated spells between scything down the grasses and cursing the gradual pursuit. Luci twisted her head from side to side, unable to spot Clara and Sebastian before they surface, holding one another upright out of a concealed dip. Their wands were pointed downwards into the grass, flashes of light bursting around their legs.
'My, my, this is exciting,' a voice said behind Luci's shoulder. She twisted and dropped to a crouch. A cutting curse sliced out of her wand on instinct. Pilgrim casually batted it aside. 'I think we need to impose a little order,' he said. He raised his wand and the wind died. Then with a rippling wave the stalks surged upwards interposing themselves between pursuers and pursued. They wove together into first a fine mesh and then as the grass twisted with sudden life into a thick barrier of tangled life. From beyond the screen the voices faded to be replaced by keening whistles and screams.
Clara reached Luci and Pilgrim. Her arm was wrapped around Sebastian's shoulders. Sebastian himself was limping; his robe was clinging to his leg and a bloody stain spread from his thigh. He took a step away from Clara, lurched and fell. Luci caught him, struggling under his weight as his clammy cheek pressed against her neck.
'What happened to him?' She asked.
'There was something in the grass. It was like a snake, or … well I don't know. I saw him stand and then he was screaming. I tried to curse it. I don't know if I hit. Lu, can you do anything?' Clara asked. Her voice was shaking. Luci shot a look she hoped was reassuring towards the younger auror.
There was a grunt as Morgan hurtled passed and tackled the two fighting figures followed by Theo. Luci tried to shut it out, tried to shut out her heartbeat pounding in her ears and focus on Sebastian. His skin was an unhealthy shade of grey and as she drew her hand back from the wound on his leg, she could see it was covered in thick almost black blood. 'Quick. I need a tourniquet around his leg. Something to slow the bleeding whilst we get out of here,' she ordered. 'Will that hold them?' She asked Pilgrim, nodding towards his barrier.
'Perhaps. We cannot spare the time to find out,' he said as he knelt beside her. Bands of soft black silk materialised in his hand and snaked around Sebastian's upper thigh and then tightened. He laid his hand on the unspeakable's chest for an instant. 'I've slowed his heartbeat. It might help. Is that sufficient?'
'For now,' Luci said. 'But I'll need to take a look at him as soon as possible.'
'Perfect. Captain …'
'Yes. Move out,' Morgan's strained voice answered from behind Luci.
Clara's hand grasped hers and helped her up. Between them they lifted the sagging Sebastian. The wall of grass was shaking under a silent assault. Morgan and Theo were already levitating the two Teds between them. Theo's face was scored with a fine tracery of cuts and he gave a tired nod to Luci as she passed him, but he seemed well enough.
Pilgrim took up the rear of the group, sauntering along unencumbered behind them. Luci and Clara led the way up the last fifty feet of the slope to the bridge. A trickle of fear ran down her spine as Luci looked up at the lightless ruin. She set foot on the bridge slowly, testing it. The boards creaked and for a moment she hesitated: the wood looked so much older than she remembered. Growths of moss and strange flowers ran along it. Then, behind them an undulating scream rose from somewhere out in the grass and the witch-light she had left behind winked out, plunging them into darkness.
They moved as fast as they could and though Luci constantly expected to hear pursuit there was soon no sound apart from their ragged breaths and the slap of their feed on wood. Not that it mattered, she though, they were after all bringing at least one of the nightmares with them. A small treacherous part of her wondered if they ought not to hurl both Teds off the bridge and down into the ravine. Slowly though the screaming died away behind them and as far as she could tell it did not get closer.
The cloistered courtyard on the other side was an overgrown mess. Leafless brambles crawled over broken stonework and amongst shattered tiles. Here and there tattered black cloth fluttered like pennants on piles of bleached and mossy bones. Weeds poked up between the flagstone. The fountain which sat in the centre of the courtyard was dry, save for a fetid puddle of blackened water at the bottom of the basin.
'How long till dawn?' Morgan asked as she and Theo set down the bodies beside the fountain and bound their hands with conjured rope.
Theo pulled out his pocket watch. He wiped few drops of blood from the many lacerations away from his brow and studied it for a moment before he shoved it back into his pocket. 'My watch has stopped.'
'Do you think dawn will come?' Clara asked quietly. She was looking back down the bridge which faded into the darkness.
'Dawn always comes,' Pilgrim said and for once there was something solemn and not a little sad in his voice.
'Are we safe here though? Shouldn't we move into Ho … into the castle?' Theo asked looking around the courtyard. 'Begging your pardon, Captain, but what is there to prevent them from following us in here?'
Pilgrim chuckled before Morgan could answer. 'Carrion birds will not enter the layer of the wolf. Can't you feel it? There's more than just cold stone here. And as it is one of them is with us,' he said and pointed a long finger at Ted.
'I … I think I need to have a little nap,' Sebastian said and Luci realised that she had almost forgotten him as he sank to the ground with a groan before promptly fainting.
Luci turned him over, rolling him so that she could reach his thigh and with a few quick slashes of her wand tore his robe open to get to the wound. It was sticky with blood and the edges were a ragged wound. The veins stood out against his pale skin, green in light she conjured. 'Eximito,' Luci muttered, chanting it over and over. At first nothing seemed to happen. Then sluggishly green fluid began to seep out of it. She laid a hand on his thigh trying to sense the edges of the venom or whatever it was. It ran through him, spreading roots into his flesh, crystallising and sinking hooks deep inside. She pressed her wand to the wound and the unspeakable groaned piteously. Concentrating she started to try and unpick the toxin's hold on him only to feel it twist like an animal inside him. She fell backwards in surprise, landing hard on her tailbone.
'Luciana, what is it?' Morgan asked her sharply. 'Can you help him?'
'I'm not sure. Whatever it was … something is inside him now. It feels alive. I've never encountered anything like this before,'
Morgan turned to Pilgrim, 'What about you? Any expertise?'
'Ah … sadly I cannot,' Pilgrim said with a pinched smile. 'I was never particularly interested in healing spells when young and now I find that my magic has become reluctant to be bent to such ends. The cure would almost undoubtedly be worse than the malady.'
'The man might die!'
'Yes.'
'He was right. There is something wrong with you,' Morgan spat advancing on him. 'Time to open up, I think. What's your game? What happened at the river? Where we you in the field?'
'I was saving your sorry skins,' Pilgrim said, drawing himself up. 'Is it my fault if I have to shepherd children?'
'That doesn't explain how you got out of there! I lost good people there,' she roared.
'I am very, very skilled. Or did you think Dumbledore wanted you to take me along as a charity case? Pilgrim asked, his voice rising.
'Dumbledore trusts too easily. And he recommended you for your "esoteric knowledge". So, come on: wow us with the esoterica!' Morgan yelled, spittle flying.
'Not in my experience,' Pilgrim sneered. His wand was in his hand and lightning crackled over it. 'As for what I know, you couldn't handle it, Captain.'
'Try me or leave.'
'Captain, look,' Clara said, interrupting them. Morgan and Pilgrim turned on her together and then followed the line of her finger. High on one of the castle's walls there was a figure carrying a lantern. The aurors and Pilgrim stared upwards for a few moments and the lantern carrier moved onwards before disappearing from sight.
'There's someone still alive in there?' Theo asked.
'So, it would seem,' Morgan said. 'Pilgrim, we'll deal with this later.'
'As you wish, Captain,' he answered a little stiffly. 'Is there anything I can do?'
'Keep an eye on the gate and tell us what you do know, or at least your theories on what those people were. Luci, look after Sebastian. I want him up ASAP. Clara, eyes on the bridge. Theo, set camp. If whoever is in the castle doesn't come out I want us ready to go in tomorrow,' Morgan rattled off as she turned back toward the two Teds to examine them.
Pilgrim sighed and picked up a piece of fallen slate. With a tap it sprang from his hand and unfolded into a throne-like chair. He sat down in it, almost lounging as he stared towards the gate to the castle. 'Have you ever wondered how a creature that existed in two dimensions would comprehend a three dimensional being? A square might see us if we stepped onto its plane. Perhaps it would see the trunk of the legs and say to itself, "ah, there go two rough circles. How odd that they appear so connected." Then you would step away and those circles would perform tricks with time and space which the square could never hope to understand. Take a few steps up or down and you vanish from the square's world. Do you follow?'
'I think so,' Morgan said.
'Good, because all of that is wrong. However, it might help as a way to grasp these things. You are limited, you can only see a tiny part of their whole. They come from before a beyond the universe. I honestly do not know if they are the survivors of a past one, or if they just are. Once, long ago, they were historians. There was a debate or a schism though and a portion of their part diverged. Some texts suggest that in this division or afterwards some mingled with human ancestors and from their union the first wizards and witches were born.
'Those things are our cousins?' Morgan barked.
'Perhaps. It might explain why we can endure the sight of them as well as we do. They are weeping sores in this reality, their presence alone distorts existence. Muggles who have seen them are usually driven mad by the merest glimpse. Wizards who have lived long lives or been heavily exposed to dementors stand a better chance.'
'Dementors?' Morgan asked and there was a waver in even her tone.
'A distant relation? Bastard offspring? The first product of their presence in this world?' Pilgrim suggested with a shrug. 'I can't say for sure. Does that satisfy you? They are ammortal, inhuman and relentless, working in service to a plan I do not understand. Why they came here I cannot guess. How they came I have only the faintest inkling. The simple fact of their presence has thrust Hogwarts beyond the bounds of your world.'
'Excuse me, Captain, Mr Pilgrim,' Theo said. 'I have a fire going and I've cloaked the area as best I could. Might we move people in there?'
Morgan sighed and nodded. 'Might as well. Better than staying out here for who knows how long. How is Sebastian doing Luciana?'
'No change Captain. I can't get it out of him, but he's stabilised. We need to get him to St Mungo's as fast as possible,' Luci said, leaving the fear that there was now no clear way back unspoken.
'Well, shift him in there. Theo, you help me with these two.'
